Thursday, August 21, 2014

Hollyhocks, Carnations from seeds. Saving Four O'Clock seeds. 8.21.14

I collected seeds from the Four O'Clock plants. They might grow fine from the roots. I collected seeds just because I can.

They are open pollinated. There is a good chance they may not come true from seeds. That's fine with me.

I just lean the seed-containing tips into a labeled envelope and shake. The ripened seeds fall in with no effort at all. In fact, moving the plants, lots of seeds fall off.

I labeled the envelopes with the color of the plant I collected from. Even if they don't come true, If I start them next year that should give me a diversity of types. I can grow separately from red, yellow, white, yellow marble, and orange marble.

This is about 6 weeks for the carnation seedlings. I just sprinkled the seeds on top of the potting soil, scratched them in a little, and kept them watered. I didn't know they would grow so easily. Soon I need to divide them and pot them up either separately or in much smaller bunches.

The Hollyhocks are ficifolia "Happy Lights". I started them about 8 weeks ago. I have other plants in containers, either Fordham Giant or Carnival Mix, that are almost ready to bloom, from seeds started mid June. I mixed the varieties so I don't know which one.

2 comments:

Very nice starters from seeds! but I was disappointed in my carnations from seeds. The picture from the packet was shown with giant big flower heads and all I got was single tiny little flowers! contaminated from the grower no doubt. The ones I started from a bough bouquet did really well with lots of speckles and tinted fringes.Shape, size came true from cuttings.

I hope these turn out better! Never know until we try. The description states they will be fragrant. I need to divide them soon and place in larger containers. Once in a rare while they give out carnations at work. Now that you have said that, I should try growing one from a cutting. They might be dyed, but maybe that won't hurt.

Erastus' Garden of Eden

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